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Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Eating and Pooping

If you're angry, disillusioned, disappointed, or just plain unhappy that President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Price recently, I want you to raise your hand.

Lift it a little higher please.

Okay, now that I've got your measure, I want to refer you to two of my favorite Jay-Z lyrics of all time.

"Nigga respect the game, that should be itWhat you eat don't make me shit - where's the love?"

"You don't even know me and you mad, how it feel to be a hater.Now I know exactly how it feel to be a Laker"

And, since I don't really listen to rap like that anymore, and I'm trying to be a better Christian, I'm also going to refer to the parable of The Workers in the Vineyard.

Now, some of y'all might be a little upset at my flippancy. Truth be told, I had planned on avoiding this entire topic cause y'all know I don't do politics like that over here any more. I've got a hands off policy on all this political wrangling, plus I'm more interested in other stuff.

With that said, I felt like I had to speak on this thing. Not because I wasn't surprised that Obama won, I was. In fact, my initial reaction was "Well, what did he do?"

Nah, I felt like speaking now because while my initial reaction was without rancor, it was based in ignorance. It seems that Obama has done more than enough to qualify for the award given the standards set forth by the Nobel committee.

We can debate whether there were other qualified candidates, but I refuse to entertain the idea that Obama was wholly unqualified. And, given this fact, for anyone to still question whether Obama "deserved" what he got, or to be upset that he got it, well that's crossing over into some unsavory territory.

That's Hater Land.

And, when folks cross over into Hater Land, I think of those Jay-Z lyrics and that parable. The lyrics are easily understandable, but everybody might not be familiar with the parable. It's about a master who hires some workers to do a job, and they all agree to get paid the same amount.

However, the master hires each worker at different times of the day, so they all work different periods in the vineyard. So, one worker might have agreed to work 10 hours for $100, while another only worked 1 hour for his $100. At the end of the parable, the owner of the vineyard chastises those workers who are upset that some folks basically got paid $100 an hour. He notes that it's his money and he can do what he wants.

The parable is designed to discuss salvation and the fact that God bestows salvation on whom he chooses, when he chooses. But, it also works in this President Obama issue. The simple truth is that most people in the world are completely unaffected by the president's victory. It has no impact on their lives, and they are still getting everything they were getting before.

Yet, for some folks it's unacceptable that somebody else can get something they think that person doesn't deserve. It's ironic that these feelings seem to be most prevalent among the media and Republicans. Obama's succes irks them to no end. Not because it affects their lives, but because it affects their sense of fair play. Guess what?

Ain't no fair play.

Fairness is a concept created by humans to justify their attempts to make the world work the way they want it to work. Justice is a concept created by God to explain why the world works the way it does. God doesn't care about what you think is fair.

There is no reason for most people to be upset at President Obama's good fortune. None. So I feel justified in labeling those folks who are upset "haters."

17 comments:

It's over. He got it. I was initially in the camp that felt it was premature/as yet undeserved. He acknowledged that. I hope he lives up to the award in his own eyes.

Do I think those who object are haters? Do I think I'm a hater? Not necessarily. It seems these days you can't disagree or else you'll be called a hater. Me personally, I was a bit annoyed because one of my favorite folks who I think did lots for world peace/how the world thinks of achieving peace (Mahatma Gandhi) never won it. But it's their prize to give and at the end of the day,you're right. I'm completely unaffected by his winning the award.

Well, if I'm reading Big Man right, he's aiming his intellectual guns not so much at the people who question the wisdom of giving him the award but rather at the people who are ANGRY about it.

It's sort of like how the neocons and other Obama haters cheered and high-fived when Chicago didn't get the Olympics, because they just want the U.S. to fail under Obama's watch just to prove their point that he's the worst thing this country could have gotten.

I agree that having hatred or anger toward his receipt of the Nobel Prize is completely wrong. And too many people are playing at just that.

But simply scratching your head about it? I don't think that's what Big Man is highlighting here.

There is certainly rationale for being angry at the POTUS for accepting a political concession. Make no bones about it, this award was as much about those radical "Norwegian" liberals pressing Obama to work for their agenda as it had to do with any real accomplishments. Afterall, it has been noted that Obama was declared the winner of this award on February 1st, nine days after Obama took office.

Big Man, I was surprised the brother got the award. I would not go so far as to say he was undeserving, but I have to believe there are others more deserving.

Certainly he would not have been in the running for the award as a U.S senator, and there is not much I can point to during his first 8 months in office to merit the award. Just don’t see the body of work.

To President Obama's credit he has talked about diplomacy, and engaging one's enemy in dialogue. He has also shown respect to the Muslim and Islamic world, unlike any of his predecessors. Most significant of all, he has initiate talks (U.S & Russia)to reduce stockpile of nuclear weapons. Does all this a Nobel Peace Prize winner make? I think not!

My jaw dropped when I heard but it don't bother me none. I am however concerned that this award will _undermine_ his efforts going forward. The committee did him no favor giving it to him at this point.

It's a friggin' joke since as the commander in chief of the most powerful military in the world that is engaged in two wars, one of which is escalating every day, he is ordering bombings every day that inevitably cause civilian deaths.

In the final analysis, it was the Nobel Committee's award to give, and for the reasons they divined.

And, for all others who received it in years gone by, I'm sure an excellent case could be made for it going to another, more-deserving, candidate.

I'm glad President Obama got it. And here's part of my reasons, as I have stated it elsewhere:

"[A]s humans, we don’t often credit what we can’t see. Obama achieved a shift in consciousness, not only here at home, but abroad. That shift will do more to advance peace than all the armies in the world.

Overall, I think it's great that he got it and I hope he is spurred on to greater things as a result. I tend to think now, after the initial surprise of hearing about it, that my ideas about what the Nobel means and about the current situation here nationally have contributed to that surprised feeling I had more than Obama himself and his deeds.

The man's got a full plate with problems in this country and with the mess Dubya and Co, made, however. The expectations after this are going to be a nearly superhuman weight on his shoulders. I wish him all the luck in this world from here on out - still.

Big Man, I had the same reaction. But two seconds later I gave out a whoop of laughter thinking about all the HATERS who were going to tie themselves in knots and have a hissy fit about this. The thought of the paroxysms of anger they experienced and the heartburn made me feel better (evil aren't I :-)

I think that Deacon did a very nice follow up to what you said and for once I think Darth and I are on the same page b/c I hav the same fears about it undermining him.

And to answer Tit for Tat and Chi-Chi woman, no people who question the decision aren't haters but the ones who are on Fox News (or as Field Negro calls it Radio Rwanda) and on Rush's show or Lou Dobb's show or the other fools out there who specifically want the President to fail. Yes, it is too bad that some people who have done a lot for Peace didn't get it in the past, but there are no post-humous Nobel awards. Also, even though it is true that Obama is the Commander in Chief, other US Presidents have won the award before, including Teddy Roosvelt who was no peacnik type. Generally though, we don't hear this much hoopla over a Nobel Peace Prize being awarded, well maybe not since Kissenger, I heard that some folks were fired up about that but I was a baby at the time so I don't know.

Although I've made it a policy to avoid responding even indirectly to Thordaddy, as I understand it, he was NOMINATED officially for the award in February. The actual decision on which nominee was going to get it came this month, unless I'm totally confused on procedure. So the decision to give him the Peace Prize would have been based on more than what he did during the campaign and in his first few days in office, but the decision to consider him for the award was was only on what the world saw of him during the campaign and up to the point shortly after inauguration.

You are a better person than me. I don't even read what Thordaddy writes. Maybe I'm close-minded but I find that what he says is usually incorrect and without merit, so I've decided to skip it and save myself a minor headache. Guess I'm a hater towards his type of thought :-)

If you read the piece again, you will find that I say that it's fine if you think other people were more deserving. That's a legitimate debate in my opinion.

The problem is if you say that there is no well in hell Obama deserved the award given the criteria outlined by the committee, and you're actually feeling any of the emotions I described because he did win.

[T]he Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world,—a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.